Networks enable the sharing and transmission of a wide array of resources between network elements (also called nodes). These networks provide essential data services to a variety users (e.g., home, business, etc.) and for a variety of purposes (e.g., web browsing, streaming video, etc.). To support these demands, networks are designed to be highly reliable. Thus, networks are typically designed to use multiple diverse routes (e.g., short span, within a network region, etc.) to ensure cost effective continued operation. End-to-end diversity between the multiple routes (e.g., working and protection paths) is typically achieved by ensuring the use of different nodes between routes (e.g., link-node diverse paths). However, these diverse nodes frequently share physical elements, such as cables, manholes, huts, poles and the like, whereby this sharing of physical elements causes a lack of diversity at the physical layer, resulting in a lower overall network reliability.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for improved approaches to obtaining end-to-end physical layer path diversity within networks.